It has been fairly a yr for P.E.I.-born Gardiner MacDougall and the College of New Brunswick Reds males’s hockey staff.
UNB wrapped up the college hockey championship on Sunday night time in Toronto with a 4-0 win over the Université du Québec a Trois-Rivières Patriotes to clinch the 2024 College Cup — for the second consecutive yr.
It was an ideal finish to an ideal season. UNB gained all 30 common season video games, all 5 league playoff video games, after which swept by way of the nationwide match. Actually, the Reds did not quit even a single purpose because it powered its approach by way of the three closing video games to win the nationwide title.
This season additionally included the 600th profession win for head coach MacDougall, making him probably the most successful coach in Canadian males’s college hockey historical past. The staff celebrated his 489th common season win with the presentation of a particular jersey.
“It is attention-grabbing if you’re within the within the warmth of it, within the course of, stated MacDougall, who was born in Bedeque, P.E.I. “You simply consider the subsequent apply or the subsequent sport.”
It is virtually a kind of fairy-tale seasons. Solely on this case, I suppose Cinderella stored her footwear on.— Gardiner MacDougall, UNB Reds males’s hockey coach
“However I believe if you take a look at it, it is virtually a kind of fairy-tale seasons. Solely on this case, I suppose Cinderella stored her footwear on.”
Excellent season
MacDougall stated he centered on preserving issues as regular as doable going into the ultimate sport of the season.
“At UNB, we speak about attempting to be the most effective you possibly can when it’s most necessary, and I believe this group actually embodied that, bringing their greatest efficiency when it counts probably the most,” MacDougall stated.
“I believe should you take a look at the statistics, you’d must go a protracted methods in all probability to discover a season the place you go 43 and 0.”
MacDougall, also referred to as Coach Mac, stated the success of the staff is all concerning the people who find themselves a part of it.
“Our goal was to go back-to-back and it isn’t straightforward to do — to be constant, to go back-to-back,” MacDougall stated.
“I believe this group, they love getting collectively, they love competing, they love making each other higher, and I believe we have had nice management, and simply clearly a historic group.”
MacDougall stated he and the staff have a few large days arising, together with a go to to the New Brunswick legislature and a UNB rally in Fredericton.
P.E.I. roots
MacDougall stated he was blessed to be born and introduced up on P.E.I., the place he discovered his love of the sport.
“We’re a smaller group and we had an area. I obtained to spend plenty of time as a younger youth arising there,” he stated.
“My dad was an avid hockey participant and simply an avid hockey fanatic — and he cherished to win. So I believe that was handed on, the aggressive edge.”
Now, MacDougall stated, the subsequent problem could possibly be to three-peat. Subsequent yr’s U Sports activities closing for males’s hockey will likely be held in Ottawa.
“It is by no means been performed by our program and positively that might be an goal,” stated MacDougall, noting there are plenty of Ontario-born gamers on the Reds.
“Lots of work to do earlier than then. But it surely’s all the time good to have a goal and an goal going ahead for the season.”
Head coach Gardiner MacDougall led the College of New Brunswick males’s hockey staff by way of an ideal season that culminated within the Reds’ second consecutive win of the U Sports activities College Cup. MacDougall, who was born and raised close to Bedeque, P.E.I., displays on the previous season and what’s forward.
Some sports activities publications, together with The Hockey Information, are describing the UNB Reds as a dynasty.
MacDougall is not keen to go that far. “That’ll be as much as historians and the sports activities reporters to place that label on us, I suppose,” he stated.
“However I take advantage of the phrases ‘JGS’ and meaning ‘simply getting began’… We’re excited for the approaching yr, and we’ll see the place all the things lays when it is all completed.”
Profitable tradition
Norman Beck is the color commentator for the UPEI males’s hockey staff and a former UPEI participant.
“I suppose you would in all probability convey any superlative or adjective that you simply need to insert into the season that was for the Reds,” Beck stated Wednesday. “Historic, unimaginable, inconceivable, unprecedented. I have been following college hockey for 50 years and I’ve by no means seen a efficiency prefer it.”
Beck stated he has watched UNB’s success develop during the last couple of a long time.
“There’s been a successful tradition that is been established, an ordinary of excellence that is actually been unparalleled,,” Beck stated.
“That successful tradition permeates from yr to yr, and it makes it engaging for individuals to go there, and who would not need to be a part of a winner, proper?”
I have been following college hockey for 50 years and I’ve by no means seen a efficiency prefer it.— Norman Beck, UPEI males’s hockey color commentator
Beck stated he seems to be ahead to seeing what MacDougall and his UNB staff do subsequent.
“What do you do now? Do you go for 2, go for 3 excellent seasons?” Beck stated.
“Dropping has been a comparatively international idea for them, so who is aware of?”
The College of New Brunswick males’s hockey staff turned the primary U Sports activities hockey staff to win 30 consecutive video games, going undefeated of their common season and incomes a spot within the historical past books.
